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May 08, 2010

An open letter by the families of the Iranian prisoners to the United Nations

You’re Excellencies;

Dear Dr. Ban ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Dear Dr. Navi Pillay, the high commissar for UN Human Rights

Subject: urgent consideration of the medical condition in the Iranian prisons

It has come to our attention that you are due to attend a meeting with the Iranian authorities regarding the violations of human rights. We are a group of families that have become victims of the fact that our beloved ones have got incarcerated for being politically active, they are prisoners of conscience, we wish to stress the urgency of the matters discussed below and expect that you will take any measures necessary to protect these prisoners’ human rights.

We desperately yearn to draw your attention to the grave situation existing inside the Iranian prisons; Prisoners are deprived of medical care and refused access to the care facilities inside the prison. This has put the lives of the imprisoned in great danger and exposed them to immense peril and made their families anxious and worried.

The physicians in the prisons are being pressured by the government not to act according to their oath and obligations. These doctors will risk their jobs and lives if they would to follow their professional obligations and treat the prisoners. It is these matters amongst others which have led to the prisoners’ mistrust of the health care inside the prison.

It has been reported numerous times that prisoners who are working as informants for the opposition has been transferred to cells where chemical and poisonous gases are kept. According to the reports, these gases have had severe consequences for the prisoners’ health. Moreover the overfilling of the prisons by the vast increase of intake of detainees, unhealthy and inadequate food standards, inhumane conduct and torture by both physical and psychological means and a more radical attitude towards the incarcerated prisoners has further intensified the crisis that existed. The psychological torture or the “silent and invisible” torture as it sometimes is called in prison, has become more vile since the torture more and more lead to paralysis, damages to the nervous system and gradually to death, all this without leaving any visible marks.

The actions of the governments and the human rights communities around the world whom claim to defend human rights have been very limited and the aid provided has been only at a minimal level. At the best, communities and nations have been condemning the anti- human rights actions of the Islamic republic of Iran, all of this without any international effort to release the political prisoners. We should not forget that these issues are dated 30 years back; violations of human rights have been a re-occurring method of the oppressing regime in Iran but gone by unnoticed by the world community and human rights organisations, due to the immense focus on the words of Iran’s autocratic regime and its representatives and the current nuclear issue.

We ask you to take the necessary actions against the tragic treatment of the political prisoners taking place in the prisons of Iran. We suggest that you send physicians under the observation of the UN to visit the Iranian prisons immediately

Below, you can find a list of the names of the renowned political and ideological prisoners from various opposition movements with different political affiliations that are currently incarcerated. These are the opponents of the Islamic republic of Iran and its pro-reform movement, these prisoners come from different religious and ethnic groups, amongst them are campaigners for women’s Rights, students, journalists, workers, teachers, Human Rights activists and artists;